Let's taco 'bout tuna tacos
Tuna and charred sweetcorn salsa tacos and a new newsletter section!
My sincere apologies for the hiatus over the past few weeks. Things get busy and then you drink a lot of port in Porto and forget how to make food for yourself because you’ve been living off tinned sardines and pastel de nata. You know how it is.
But the past is the past because I am back and I’ve got a lovely sunny recipe for you to blow away the cobwebs of winter because even though it’s freezing I’ve mentally decided it’s spring. These tacos use tinned tuna, which I know isn’t always number one on everyone’s love-it list, but trust me when I say they’re really tasty. As with anything, the key is getting the nicest tinned tuna you can afford (you can clean out the tin and use it as a pen holder/plant pot etc afterwards for extra val for money) to make the tuna topping. This recipe is also a double tin whammy because it uses tinned sweetcorn too! Of course you could use fresh corn on the cob but tinned sweetcorn is cheap as chips and it’s not really sweetcorn season anyway.
Following general food chats and feedback from you all I’m going to be organising the newsletter slightly differently from now on, and using a ‘feed yourself’ and ‘feed your friends’ philosophy. Personally I find that I’m either cooking for me and one other person, or cooking a feast for a few friends, and it seems a lot of you cook that way too. So, there’ll be one main recipe that’s easy to make for one or two (there might be the occasional recipe that serves 4 or 6 but that’s what Tupperware and office microwaves are for) and a section on how to bulk it out into a Friday night feast for your pals. So, without further ado, here’s this week’s recipe.
Tuna tacos with charred sweetcorn salsa
Serves one (makes three tacos)
65g red cabbage
2 limes
75g tinned sweetcorn
1 spring onion
1 green chilli
1/2 a tin of tuna (the best quality you can find)
1/4 a red onion
1 red chilli
a small handful of coriander
1-2 tsp mayonnaise
3 small tortilla wraps or corn tacos, should you be lucky to live close enough to a shop that sells them
Very finely slice the red cabbage. If you’re nervous about this or your knife is rubbish, you can use the slicing/grating attachment on a food processor, or just grate it with a normal grater.
Put into a small bowl with a pinch of salt and the juice of 1/2 a lime to marinate.
Then drain any water or oil from the tuna, decant into a bowl and use a fork to separate it into flakes. Finely chop the red onion, red chilli (deseed first) and coriander and add to the bowl. Add the mayonnaise and a pinch of salt and stir until combined.
Then, place a small pan on a high heat. Empty the tin of sweetcorn into a sieve and rinse. Dry with kitchen towel or a clean tea towel. Once the pan is hot, add the corn and cook until brown and charred (should take about 5 mins). You can stir it, but remember that to get the nice charring the corn needs to maintain quite a lot of contact with the pan.
While the corn is cooking, finely chop the green chilli and finely slice the spring onions. Once the corn is nice and charred, add to a small bowl with the green chilli, spring onions, the juice of 1/2 a lime and a pinch of salt.
Now, get your tortillas and chuck them on the hob. Yes, that means a naked flame if you’re cooking with gas. This softens them nicely and gives them some charring (I love a bit of char, can’t you tell?) that looks and tastes great. Don’t be scared of the char!
Now for the fun part. Not that eating a plateful of tacos by yourself on a Tuesday isn’t fun…
How to make this dish into a Friday night feast
Toasted cumin potato wedges
Who doesn’t love a potato wedge? Especially if there are spicy margs on the cards (see below). I like to par boil them because it makes them super fluffy on the inside and crispy on the outside, but if you’re short on time or can’t be bothered you can skip this step. Preheat your oven to 200 degrees and set a pan of water on the hob to boil. Chop 1kg of Maris Piper potatoes (if you’re cooking for four) into 2-3cm wide wedges. Salt the water generously, if using, and once boiling add the potatoes. Put 2 tbsp olive oil on a tray and put into the oven to heat up. Boil the wedges for 8 minutes, then drain into a colander and cover with a tea towel and steam for 2 mins. Take the oiled tray out of the oven and tip the wedges onto it with 2 tbsp cumin seeds. Season with salt and bake for 30-35 minutes, turning halfway through.
Super green guacamole
My favourite kind of guacamole involves very little chopping and none of that tomato and red onion business. This super green one is just all the good stuff: a super ripe avocado, scooped out and mashed in a bowl with a generous pinch of salt, the juice of a whole lime and a handful of roughly chopped coriander.
Smoky black beans
These beans are a great side because they take approx 5 mins to make and taste brilliant alongside zesty salsas and sauces. Heat 1 tbsp of oil in a large saucepan and once hot add a clove of finely chopped garlic, 1 tsp of smoked paprika and a tin of drained and rinsed black beans. Cook for a few minutes then mash roughly with a fork in the pan, then add a little splash of water, simmer until thickened and season with a little salt.
Spicy margs
A margarita is always better spicy in my opinion, and I especially like them on the rocks (no salt rim for me, but each to their own). Make your spicy margs two at a time in a cocktail shaker. Add ice and a couple of slices of green chilli into the shaker and muddle to release that spicy goodness. Add 100ml tequila, 50ml lime juice, 50ml triple sec and 20ml sugar or agave syrup. Shake like your life depends on it, then pour into a tumbler filled with ice. Garnish with a whole green chilli and a salt rim if you like.